In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal (see Amber Tamblyn Admits ‘If Hillary Won, Harvey Weinstein Would Still Be In Power…’ and Ashley Judd Talks “Loving” Harvey Weinstein. Reveals Troubling Hypocrisy…), there were many voices asking "why now?" If these women were harassed, assaulted, and/or raped, why didn't they have the courage to speak out before? Maybe because Weinstein used former intelligence officers to gather information on his victims. To blackmail them into silence.

That's why. The sound you hear? The other shoe dropping. But buckle up, Weinstein is still stripping.

Perhaps Ronan Farrow should invest in a little personal security of his own:

Two private investigators from Black Cube, using false identities, met with the actress Rose McGowan, who eventually publicly accused Weinstein of rape, to extract information from her. One of the investigators pretended to be a women’s-rights advocate and secretly recorded at least four meetings with McGowan. The same operative, using a different false identity and implying that she had an allegation against Weinstein, met twice with a journalist to find out which women were talking to the press. In other cases, journalists directed by Weinstein or the private investigators interviewed women and reported back the details.

You getting this? Weinstein not only hired intelligence agencies consisting of former Mossad agents, he had contacts in the press. Which, last I checked, was hardly a cadre of Jesus-worshipping GOP get out the voters.

The explicit goal of the investigations, laid out in one contract with Black Cube, signed in July, was to stop the publication of the abuse allegations against Weinstein that eventually emerged in the New York Times and The New Yorker. Over the course of a year, Weinstein had the agencies “target,” or collect information on, dozens of individuals, and compile psychological profiles that sometimes focussed on their personal or sexual histories.

I believe this is called "slut shaming," yeah?

Weinstein monitored the progress of the investigations personally. He also enlisted former employees from his film enterprises to join in the effort, collecting names and placing calls that, according to some sources who received them, felt intimidating.

The whole article deserves your time and full attention. Read it on an empty stomach, to stave off the vomit. The lengths this man went to to cover up his lecherous behavior has probably been going on for years. If one has a devious sex ring, with hundreds of millions of Hollywood industry dollars at stake, one goes to extreme measures to protect oneself. Allegedly.

It's also becoming more and more clear the scandal is less about sanctimonious A-listers looking the other way, more like a straight up cover-up of Harvey's sexual gambits. Blackmailing and intimidation was always on the table. And this is just what Farrow was comfortable to report, by the way. Think there's more out there to be discovered?

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